Brain Quest Preview

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Trick your third and fourth graders into learning something!

By Daemon Hatfield

The Brain Quest trivia games for kids have been around for a while now, and Electronic Arts is bringing them to the Nintendo DS. Two cartridges, one for third/fourth graders and one for fifth/sixth graders, will be available next month. Each will send youngsters travelling around the world, helping people in need and answering light questions. As an example, the word "indian" was displayed on the bottom screen. We were asked to add another letter to make the word into a U.S. state. A handful of letters were available to choose from. Easy. We chose the letter "p" and made "Indianp." Our home state.

In Quest mode, players accept missions from NPCs, travel to new areas, and receive more info from the locals. Most of the game is stylus-driven, except moving around the world map is handled with the D-pad. One poor fellow we talked to needed help with his pet cougar, who hasn't been acting like herself, lately. There is also a full Sudoku game included, complete with several difficulty modes.

Say goodbye to your brain.

As they play, kids will earn collectibles. These are items and animals that can be placed in the game's backgrounds, allowing for customization.

The puzzles reminded us of our days in elementary school. For one question, two columns of words were displayed on the touch screen and we had to draw lines between them, connecting corresponding words.